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Hey, I visited Japan for a week, and tested out the 5D III and to see what it can do with Magic Lantern.

Clearly that means IBIS is top-notch.

I currently own 2 gx85's, a gx7, and a gm1 --and have been shooting video with them for quite awhile. I posted a doc I did with them in the screening room. my avatar icon for this website is a GM1 with a little manual Pentax lens on it. LUMIX are nice cameras. Kind of great, really. I still like using my EM5II more. Better stabilization, audio input, EVF that's useful, flippy LCD, headphones, easier to hold and shoot with... the sum of the whole is better than the parts. The IQ is better with the LUMIX cameras, no question. For my needs, the IQ is not so much better that I've stopped using the Oly. I just enjoy using Oly that much. Its nothing that shows up on a spec sheet. LUMIX cameras are better IQ machines. They are a huge value for that! But when I'm out in the field everyday shooting for hours, I like to feel comfortable with the camera I'm using. Oly does this for me more so than the LUMIX. It's that simple.

The IBIS is only best in class with 2 lenses. Specifically, Sync IS on the very expensive Olympus PRO zooms. And they are F4. F4 looks terrible on a Micro Four Thirds sensor. Flat and clinical. Whereas the GX85 and G85 performs dual IS with the Leica Nocticron 42.5mm F1.2 and 6 other lenses. I know which I'd rather have. As for rolling shutter, it's about 14ms on the G85 in 4K and certainly the E-M1 II is an improvement but it won't usually be noticeable on 95% of shots. The G85 is cleaner at ISO 1600 than the GH4 is at 800. It does very acceptable 3200 and colour saturation doesn't die. Nice and contrasty. ISO 6400 is the limit. Not bad. The E-M1 II is similar, no improvement for your $2000. It's hardly going to be Rode Videomic X standard but I did notice on the E-M1 II when I tried it, that the stereo mic built in was above average. Exactly! $2000 for the E-M1 II just for the stabilisation is not worth it.

the old way was to put your grain on a video layer above the clip and set its blend or composite mode to "overlay" and then to use a contrast filter on the grain layer to dial in the intensity.

At film school, your professors are usually not actively working in the field. So this WanderingDP - interview young up and coming DPs who share unique perspectives and ideas is incredibly valuable. I learned a ton from the interview with Chayse Irvin, super talented young dp who shot the Lemonade Beyonce film. http://wanderingdp.com/

Slow motion test. All scenes shot at 1600iso.

check Canon C100 and C300, they are the cine line with an APSC sensor, they record in 4k downscaling to 1080p, today a C100 mk1 cost less than a 5D mrk IV, the image is so cinematic and the low light is fantastic, not to mention the skintones which are the best by far from any camera in the same price range. By the way, you also have Canon C-log, which is a plus.

It's really all about how our brains work. From what I can tell, our brains balance for color temps 2500k up to 9000k - after that it seems to accept the color cast, which explains why twilight (14000kish) actually looks cool and candle light (1800k) looks warm. Same for sunsets. So If anything is in between those numbers I balance for neutral white and beyond that It makes sense to just go with it. Also sunsets actually have two light sources, the sky, which can be very cold, and the warm sun. So if someone is back lit by the sun thats not really your key light. I often shoot golden hour at 7500k to match the sky and let the sun be like a warm rim light.

Cinema5D seem to be engaged in a huge charm offensive towards every manufacturer at the moment, flying out personally to Japan to lick arses and generally cozy up. It makes me want to wrench. If ever there was a self serving portion of the DSLR video community this is what it looks like. The review is just a means to an end, to get views, get advertisers and get cozy. Johnnie didn't even know about the manual focus clutch ring design of the Olympus lenses until he tried to engage AF on the shoot and nothing happened... they've been around for years. Several of my Olympus Micro Four Thirds lenses have this basic feature. We are not looking at enthusiasts or artists here. Instead we are witnessing the career manoeuvrings of the video-as-a-business trio who fired Jared Abrams from his own blog, and whom closed one of the biggest DSLR video forums after DVXUser, because it became an 'inconvenience' (not before they sold it to Planet5D, mind, before forcefully taking it back and closing it)

IBIS/rolling shutter seem to be best in class. What are the cons though? I read that mic/headphone jack placement is really bad and I do not understand what the 3200/6400 iso mean. In GH4 the number was 800/1600, is the Olympus really that much better in low light? Fuji/Olympus are photo orientated cameras with acceptable (to good) 4K video. That is a first. I except much better video performance in the next try (especially from Fuji). P.s "good built-in audio quality" must be some kind of joke.

Film Grain in Premiere Pro CC. Overlay, % and contrast.

1999, actually. They started to slowly appear 'In stock' since saturday. https://geizhals.eu/olympus-om-d-e-m1-mark-ii-schwarz-gehaeuse-v207060be000-a1510914.html

Using a set WB and adjusting in post with an 8bit codec is a very bad practice for the following reasons: 1. With 8bits per channel you loose a lot of color information, that upon correction will give you flat colors with minimal tonal differences (skin will look like plastic) and a lot of banding (but interestingly at least in theory you could get less sky banding if you shift your WB to cooler values, just don't have a face in the scene ) 2. The sensor itself is not equally sensitive across the visible spectrum, consequently the colors will shift to different hues 3. Artificial lights have non-uniform spectra (fluorescent bulbs is the most extreme) and that will amplify the hue differences and flatter tonalities. Adjusting the WB in post to bring back the warmness or coolness of the scene will always give you a better result. Forgetting the WB in one setting might sound easier, but it is a bad practice that will definitely give you more problems. Going back to the main thread subject, any natural light (daylight, shade, clouds) is easy and can be a set value of temperature & tint for each. Artificial lights always need custom adjustments in both temperature and tint, and never ever AWB (at least with Sony cameras).

Any word on AF? Interestingly no rumor on this. Will it be unusable like the GH4 or great like a Sony A6300, that's the biggest questions for me with the GH5. For the rest we already know it's gonna be great with good 10 bit 4K, IBIS etc.

How could you have possibly noticed that? Nobody ever published the ID of the sensor model of the GH5. Given the size of the order it's even possible to get modifications included or a different stepping for the same model.

I have tested it with filmconvert but I recently purchased red giant renoiser and I really like the texture it added.

Admittedly I have experimented with grain all that much. Perhaps, I haven't figured out the best way to do it either. I know Lumteri in PP lets you add grain. Sorry if that doesn't help but I just don't have a need for it for my style. It's looked fine in Premiere the times I have used it.

As I await my order of two simple Aputure lights...This was a super cool interview I have to pass on! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHCUdXmshbw

You should reconsider the ursa mini you can get a second hand one for cheaper , get faster glass or some extra light with the money saved. A red mx won t be better in low light, and other than a F55/F65, sony colors....sucks period , panasonic is barely better outside of the varicam range. Personally I find external recorders to be a pain to use . More battery to carry , more potential issues , ect.... A ursa mini will be all in one .

It depends on what you consider an accurate WB to be. If I had to choose a WB that my camera would be stuck on forever, I'd choose 4500. This will make tungsten look warm and shade look cool, as they should be. In my opinion, a custom WB in these situations leads to unnaturally clinical colour in tungsten light and unnaturally warm colour in shade. I'm not suggesting leaving your camera on 4400 for the rest of your life. But it's actually not as bad as you might think. And the Kelvin scale is not linear. The jump from 3000 to 4000 is very noticeable, while going from 7000 to 8000 is relatively subtle. So 4400 is not as far from 8000 as you might think from looking at the numbers. Before I shot RAW on my 5d3 I would usually begin from 4500 and dial up or down depending on my intention for that scene. On my XC10 I leave it on cloudy all the time (as colour seems nicer with this preset although I've no hard proof of that) and the 422 codec is tough enough for me to bring it into the correct range, even when shooting tungsten. I should mention that I use the now defunct GingerHDR Color Temperature plugin, though. This is way better than anything else I've tried.

To quote someone or other: "Sensor and lens, balanced and stable"

No, 6K is ONLY a measure of horizontal resolution not the total MP count. A 5208 x 3916 sensor cannot be 6K. It is 5.2K. It's a common misconception it seems. Not surprising as the cinema terminology is usually bollocks Please NOOOOOOO don't let this be true.

Fact is that BNC 2016 is: 1) Olympus 34.5% 2) Sony 24.8% 3) Canon (! With the EOS M2 mainly!) 13.6% So, the fact that is the first (second actually) try on video is a big thing for them, and the market. GH5 is going to be big, but after the X-T2, a6500, M5 and M1-ii releases, Pana is a bit late in the game. That gives Sony time to have a really good APS camera in the summer(September?) because they must be working on a new body for some time now (both APS and full frame). We don't even know GH5's release date, and I seriously doubt that it will be cheaper than the Olympus, here in Europe. Everyone's buying time to Sony, to dominate the market in a couple of years.

If only the alexa mini was £4000.....

Any news on being able to magnify the image to check focus while recording? That would be a big plus!

Did you have to run this through something like neat video or is this straight and graded from the card? Love that Blackmagic look. Always looks very cinematic to me.

The only true conclusion I've been able to make so far from this discussion is that the pocket camera really is a phenomenal piece of kit for the price. I'm searching in a market for systems five or six times the price of the pocket, yet have failed to find anything that is a substantial improvement upon it, with regards to either specs or usability. Essentially, all I want is a system with the pocket's specs, 4K, a more softer digital looking image (one could argue this can be achieved through choice of glass), and something that isn't ridiculous huge. Yet for an extra few thousands of pounds, this can't be found .. Extremely disappointing, as it is frustrating .. Do appreciate all the comments so far though - great that so many of you guys are contributing, despite the lack of progress in terms of a conclusion .. We'll get there! Regarding the 1DC - I love the image as much as I do the C100ii, but spending thousands of pounds for an image that falls apart under any substantial grading is a deal-breaker .. It hurts me to say that, since I do love the depth/colour to Canon's image, but I can't suger-coat 8-bit when there's thousands of pounds at stake .. I agree though, I have to make a compromise somewhere - I'd just father it be a spec less influential than colour bit .. What I do have on my side is time .. I'm in no rush to make a purchase, and who knows, come March/April when I do make the decision, there could be a system that ticks all my boxes, or a price-drop for a system that currently does. If the GH5 has impressive low-light, I'll probably just settle with that, and invest everything else in some beautiful glass .. What's the verdict on Panasonic's colour science?

Nice. Shot with good well considered light. Would look fine with just about any camera to be honest... Which, honestly, is why I'm considering using Oly cameras from here on out. They're "good enough" for video and my deciding factor ends up being more about the ergonomics of the gear when all else across brands is close to equal at this price point. I just like using Olympus cameras. Can't say I have a hard time with any other brand. I like them all, really, it's just that Olympus feels "right" to me. That said, it's not going to stop me from using a full frame camera with a 50mm on it for my interviews. That's just a look I can't get from M43, so I gotta have an extra camera just for those set-ups.

thoughts on autofocus please?

Not blown away by anything out of the camera so far and since my own hands on with it I've been shooting with the Panasonic G85 and realised it is by far the better deal. The stabilisation doesn't seem much better on the E-M1 II compared to that camera for video. The price - is it worth double just to shave 0.2x off the crop factor in 4K? The ergonomics - I feel the Panasonic menus and controls are less convoluted somehow. E-M1 II doesn't seem to have an advantage for ISO 3200, 6400... unchanged since old E-M1 Don't remember being blown away by the EVF compared to the G85 at half the price either. Main difference is the higher bitrate codec and less rolling shutter.... but neither are a particular problem on the G85 either. Both are very good cameras for video but right now I am leaning towards saving $1000. Not least because the GH5 is around the corner which gives the E-M1 II a useful shelf life of about 2-3 months for your $2000.

Hip Hop video clip 4K, shot hand held:

Here are some quick crap pics of my Elmo and redstan clamp. If you are still in the market I'll shoot better ones for you to fully see all the details of the lens. It's in excellent shape....seems near mint to me but I'm not knowledgable of exactly to name the official status of lenses. Other than a couple tiny marks on the outside the lens is a beauty.

This post should be a sticky. Pinned!

I recommend this app too. Used it on my GH4 and G85. Works really well and I really like the squeeze options. Just a few notes: - I like to change focus for AF using the touch screen. However the screen goes into sleep mode after 10 seconds, and if I touch the screen it says "camera is under remote control". So I have to go into the Panasonic Image App to change focus on the fly. - G7 workaround is good for G85 and works well. - very little lag - for manual focusing especially with 2x anamorphics, using focus punch-in BEFORE recording also punches in the image on the app - very good for handheld gimbal use. So not just for anamorphic squeeze. I'll take some pics of my setup later. Although I thought it was pricey at first, this is a real great app. Now I can use my iPhone 6s Plus or iPad Mini2 for a monitor and it works really well. I'm used to my SmallHD DP4 with custom squeeze ratio, but this app is a way better solution. Plus I can now record 4:3 anamorphic with monitoring and larger internal recording size. I had to rent an Atomos Shogun before to monitor (and of course external recording) and it's also a hassle for all the wires and rigging. This is a much simpler solution and easier for run-n-gun or mobile solutions. Thank you Mjas for this great app!!!

Cool! freddiew started RocketJump Film School: https://www.youtube.com/user/RJFilmSchool , been around for maybe a year or so now. I always enjoy the roundtables on The Hollywood Reporter that invite Directors and Cinematographers. Believe these are the most recent ones: Means... another two or three months and then we have new ones! Love listening to people in the bizz talking about their craft.

No doubt everyone's aware of this, but Cooke Optics' YouTube channel is yet another department of the free film school: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-Ya9gBlwOhRwtloTn1hvbA

To load a LUT into FCPX, The LUT Loader plugin by Pixel Film Studio is free : http://store.pixelfilmstudios.com/plugin/fcpx-lut-loader EDIT : The website seems offline, so please find attached the plugin in ZIP. Pixel Film Studios - FCPX LUT LOADER 1.4.zip